Hey guys, I have a problem. I just re-installed XP on a Samsung 840 Pro 256gb SSD, and am having issues with it freezing up, actually restarting on me. I dual boot this rig with Win 7 Pro, which is installed on a Vertex3 256gb SSD, and it is rock solid in all conditions.

The XP install is restarting when idle, after it has been running anywhere from 45 minutes to 6 hours, it seems to be random. I was seeing a JRAID error in the event log about 5 minutes before each restart event. I figured out that it was related to my external e-SATA drive, so I turned it off. The problem still occurs, and now there are no errors or warnings in the event log, save an occasional tcpip one, but that doesn't seem to directly precede the restarts. I have automatic restarts turned off, so I don't think that it is blue screening before the restarts, just when I come back I am back at the log in screen.

It is not currently overclocked at all. I have run memtest86 for 6 passes without errors.

My gut feeling is that it isn't hardware related because the Win 7 install is solid using all the same hardware. And I have run prime95 for 8 hours without issue on the Win 7 install. I was at first thinking power supply, but considering the stability of the 7 install I don't think that would be it. Do you think it is possible that there was just a burp in the XP install process that is causing this? I don't mind re-installing it is that will remedy the problem, but it is a PITA so I don't want to have to do it over and over.

Did you install the latest chipset drivers and all other drivers for your hardware after you reinstalled windows?

::EDIT::

Secondly, why are you wasting your time with XP? 16GB of RAM is wasted on it, and XP does not support TRIM, so that drive super fast SSD will be trash in no time!

For the original install about 1.5 years ago I used the MB disk for the drivers, and that install was stable. For this install I used the latest drivers available on the ASUS website. In addition, per this months mag issue, I installed slimdrivers and updated all the drivers, and still have the same problem.

In addition, I also ran the "half open" tcp/ip fix, increasing the allowable number to 500. That got rid of the alerts about tcpip in event viewer. Now there are no errors at all preceding a restart.

As for why I am using XP, let's not get into that, OK? I dual boot with Win 7 pro, as I stated before. Let's just all assume that I have a good reason for having an XP install on this rig. I just really need to get this figured out and get the rebooting stopped. Thanks...

How is your pagefile usage in WinXP? I wonder if you are actually having RAM errors, because of the amount of RAM on the video cards and actual system RAM.

I haven't been monitoring it, but in Task Manager for the last 5 minutes it has been between 1.39 and 1.40 GB. Is there a better way to monitor it to get the information you need?

FWIW, I had an XP install on this rig for 1.5 years that was rock solid. I will admit that when I did that install I had only 8GB of RAM, I added the other 8GB about 6 months after the original XP install. The only hardware difference between that install and this one is the original was on a Revodrive, where this one is on the Samsung 840 Pro, and I had a PCI-E 2 port add in card on the original and have a 4 port this time. I tried removing that card to see if it was causing the problem and it happened with it out as well, although I didn't remove the drivers when I tested that.

I hate to keep asking, but anyone have any ideas on this? I swapped power supplies with a known good one and it does the same thing. I have installed XP about 14 times and it randomly restarts. Nothing in the event log and no minidump files. It acts like a hard reset from the reset button when it happens. I have taken everything out of the MB except the proc and cleaned it, ran memtest for 4 hours, everything that I can think of. Could a particle of dust in the CPU socket do this? Would it be worth pulling the CPU and hitting the socket with a quick shot of compressed air? I have never seen anything like this...please help

I am down to minimum hardware, which is 8GB of RAM, 1 optical drive, 1 SSD, and 1 video card only and am attempting another install, but I am not hopeful.

Let's take a third option, because if this doesn't happen on Windows 7 and if you're using XP to run some application... put XP in a virtual machine.

Or we could spend a week running hardware tests.

I have attempted that actually and the VM couldn't see all the hardware that I need in XP. As I said, I am in a minimal hardware config right now, and just finished another install, so I'm seeing if this one works. I also have the Microsoft driver verifier turned on. I can't imagine that a CPU could do this, but it is the only new part in the system, and when I installed it is when all this started. But that may just be a coincidence.

OK, I finally got this thing stable in XP. After much troubleshooting I determined that with 16GB of memory installed it was unstable and would restart. When running with 8GB of memory it was stable and had no problems. I set the /MAXMEM=3072 switch in the boot.ini file and it now runs stable with the 16GB of memory installed, and of course the Win7 Pro install still has access to the full amount of memory. Both OSs are stable at a 4.2 overclock with the /MAXMEM switch set in XP.

I am posting this so anyone that might encounter a similar problem might have a solution without all the heartache I went through over the last 14 days.

Who is online

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum